Mark & Mandy

Tiny Dancer, originally uploaded by markandmandy.

We put on some ballerina shoes today and had a little dance off – Elsie won! She loves the Beatles just like her grammie (the early stuff, not the druggie phase).

Today is heather’s birthday so we wanted to send some birthday cheer!

First get all dressed up in your birthday pinks …

Have dad put a sign on you since you haven’t mastered the art of Sign Spinning …

and SMILE!! (at dad, not the big thing that always flashes you – this is our next skill to learn)

Happy Birthday Heather!

We have been having some hot, hot, hot weather lately – it hit 100 degrees yesterday. We thought a walk through some cool grass might be fun for the bean. First she enjoyed the hot concrete …

Curled up little feet aren’t quite ready to touch the grass …

Ok feet down … still a bit skeptical

Hmm – maybe warm concrete is a better fit than tickly grass …

Who says babies can’t sit up! This cool bumbo chair is holds the little bean up in the perfect sitting position. She is still skeptical but when I told her all the big kids were doing it – she was in!

For Fathers day we had the Richau crew over for Brunch. We made crepes – when I say we I mean mostly my dad and mark (and my mom too).

Elsie got mark a new shirt (she’s already able to use a credit card) and here he is looking so cute (and clearly too busy watching the US Open to look at the camera).

We got to meet Ben’s daughter Bella who is 9 months old

After brunch we headed over to the house my dad is currently building to check on the progress – its a pretty small house decked out with every feature you could imagine (laundry rooms on all three floors, elevator, 3 dishwashers … )

This is the guest room that looks out to their backyard pool – that’s some crazy drywall:

Outside dryvit:

I give it two thumbs up:

They project makes me want to build my own home … some day.

Shelley, Heather and Lisa threw a meet and greet for Elsie while we were in Billings.

Here are a few shots of the fun:

the four generations – Ruby, Pam, Mandy and Elsie

Carol, Karen, Shelley and Me:

Heather and Robb:

(more photos here)

We also learned a new game called Cornhole! the object of the game, you guessed it, is to toss a bag filled with corn into the hole. 1 point if the bag lands on the platform, 3 for the hole – first team to 21 wins. Lisa and I challenged my dad and mark – we lost, but just barely. Mark and I are going to make a cornhole game this weekend – its the perfect backyard fun!

This weekend we traveled up Montana for fathers day, an Elsie meet and greet and Riley’s 4th birthday. Heather is the ultimate entertainer so this event is known as Riley-palooza throughout Billings.

This years theme was Pirates and there were 25 kids and lots of parents (heather has lots of adult drinks including a keg that needs to be finished before the party is over). Here is Grammie with the bean who wasn’t quite ready for all of the kids.

My mom is the official cake maker for riley-palooza so we spent saturday morning decorating. Here is the cake:

Heather sent the kids on a treasure hunt and they found booty – pirate patches and doo-rags.

The best part of the day was that heather and robb had an envelope that contained the sex of their baby (to be born mid october) and they let riley open it for the crew. Last Monday Heather had her big ultrasound and the doctor put a colored piece of paper in an envelope to open … and it was PINK!!

We were all secretly hoping for pink – hooray! Heather and Robb were ecstatic! Riley had a blast (I can’t believe he is 4).

Today was elsie’s 8 week doctor visit (she will be 9 weeks tomorrow) and it was the dreaded vaccination day. Mark conveniently went to California to avoid any association to the shots.

As usual Elsie loved having her clothes off and kicking on the table – you may remember her past visit poses:

She is still in the 25th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height and head circumference. The nurse gave elsie some tylenol to preemptively stop any leg soreness – she definitely enjoyed the grape flavor.

they then brought in another nurse to help administer the shots – 4 of them, 2 in each leg. When the first stick went in Elsie’s eyes opened really wide and then the screaming started. Big giant crocodile tears with a big giant wail – it was horrible, but fast (if there were some sort of speed shot contest, these ladies would definitely be contenders). I scooped up the bean and did the mom cuddle, but the tears were still flowing – so I gave her the boob. No tears can beat the boob!

She settled down and is now taking a long nap – it takes a lot of energy to cry like that!

Working hard with dad, originally uploaded by markandmandy.

who says you need a nanny?

We went to the google picnic on friday and Elsie wanted to fit in …

We only stayed a bit, enough time for some pulled pork sandwiches and a beer – and time to introduce Elsie to the googlers.

Lola wearing the google swag…